In support of Chuck Hagel

Yes, referring to Clinton’s choice for US ambassador to Luxembourg as “openly, aggressively gay” was stupid – but that was 15 years ago.   As far as I’m concerned if he admits now that that was a stupid comment then it’s water under the bridge.    Sen. Hagel apologized for his comment and stated “I am fully supportive of ‘open service’ and committed to L.G.B.T. military families.”  (I believe him.)  That should be end-of-story on the matter.  There are far more substantive matters to consider – for example, his apparent reluctance to start a war with Iran and apparent willingness to stand up to AIPAC – both strong points in his favor as far as I’m concerned.  The Secretary of Defense needs to be a clear-eyed realist on foreign policy matters and a competent manager when it comes to dealing with people and material resources.  What I know of Hagel suggests he got the clear-eyed realism thing in spades.  Hopefully we’ll get some insight during his confirmation hearing into what kind of manager he might be. My bet is he’ll be fine.

Charlie Pierce with a strong argument in support of Hagel:

Ever since that thoroughgoing, bean-counting, soulless bastard Robert McNamara was in charge of it, the Defense Department steadily has moved away from the notion that its primary constituency is the men and women in uniform. Certainly, to name one recent example, Donald Rumsfeld proved to be far more in love with his own brilliant theories on defense policies than he cared about the fact that we weren’t sending enough poor sods in inadequate body-armor to carry them out. This is a problem that Chuck Hagel never will have.

Hagel is a grunt. He always has been. He always will be. He’s one of the people who has to kick in the doors. He’s one of the people who has to look gingerly around the corner. He’s one of the people who had to live at war 24-7, and who walked through Indian country and nearly died there… He is the first grunt to make it as far as he has since Elliot Richardson, who landed in the first wave at Utah Beach. The rest have been a passel of career spooks and think-tank bombardiers. It is impossible to imagine Hagel sending an army into battle without proper body-armor, or suggesting, idiotically, that “you go to war with the army you have.”…

Chuck Hagel knows what the basic job of soldiering really is and, therefore, I think, he knows what the basic job of being Secretary Of Defense is. It’s to fight for people, and not for weapons systems. It’s to care for the human beings in your charge more than the fanciful bloodless academic exercises held at a distance.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

In a season when Lincoln’s Second Inaugural is the big finish of a box-office bonanza, Hagel has lived the peroration as well as anyone has.

CP also links to a column by Peter Bienart in support of Hagel.  I’m not a big fan of Beinart but it’s a good column.